Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

University Staff Strike Across the UK

Universities across the UK are on strike. What are lecturers, researchers, administrators, computer staffs, librarians and postgraduates fighting for?

Alejandra Ríos

February 23, 2018
Facebook Twitter Share

Photo credits: Neil Terry

On Thursday February 22nd, staff at UK universities started a wave of strike action in defence of their pensions. This is the biggest industrial action ever taken by the union. Lecturers, researchers, administrators, computer staffs, librarians and postgraduates are involved in the struggle and they will strike for fourteen days intermittently over four-weeks. Throughout the whole period they will also work-to-contract, which means staff will not undertake voluntary duties.

The strike is a response to plans to slash benefits of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension scheme. According to the University and College Union (UCU) this would leave a typical lecturer almost £10,000 a year worse off in retirement than under the current set-up. Unsurprisingly UCU members support action. In the ballot authorizing the strike 88 percent of members who voted approved striking. The turnout was 58 percent.

In an article featured in London Review of books on 16 February 2018, Waseem Yaqoob, lecturer at the University of Cambridge, argues: “The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) has more than 400,000 members. According to Universities UK (UUK), the employers’ association, USS faces a deficit that requires its transformation from a defined benefit scheme, providing staff with a guaranteed retirement income, into a defined contribution scheme, made up of individual pension funds subject to the vagaries of the stock market. These changes, imposed in the teeth of opposition from union negotiators, will leave everyone who currently pays into USS worse off.”

ucu_bbc.jpg

Photo credits: BBC

The employers’ association is seeking to push through the changes at all costs and have refused to negotiate with UCU. The projected USS pensions deficit – used to justify the attack – is based on a worst-case scenario where every university in the scheme went bust. This argument is ridiculous because there is next to nil chance the tens of organisations and universities linked to the USS will go under under simultaneously.

In actuality, UK universities are getting richer and those riches are pooling at the top. Since 2009, lecturers’ real wages have fallen by 16% whilst vice-chancellors and senior managers enjoy ever-growing salaries. Beyond the staff, the students also receive less from the thriving universities. They finish their degrees with massive debts and with little prospect of finding a decent job despite paying £9,250 a year.

Pickets and rallies have been organised in almost every single university around the country. In some cities ‘Teach-out actions’ were called by lecturers and students in order to make their voice heard. The support of the students has been impressive and undeterred by the strike affecting them the most.

The conditions that underlie the strike is the marketization of education – through the weapon of privatisation – to transform the nature of education and turn students into clients. And further, if the bosses are successful in gutting the USS a dangerous precedent will be set for all public pension schemes. Support the strike!

The strike dates are:

Week one – Thursday 22 and Friday 23 February (two days)
Week two – Monday 26, Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 February (three days)
Week three – Monday 5, Tuesday 6, Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 March (four days)
Week four – Monday 12, Tuesday 13, Wednesday 14, Thursday 15 and Friday 16 March (five days)

Facebook Twitter Share

Europe

At a Meeting in Paris, 1,200 People Put Revolution Back on the Agenda

Last Wednesday, 1,200 people attended a meeting of Révolution Permanente, the sister site of Left Voice in France. The group has been playing an important role in the fight against neoliberal reforms and the Far Right, while showing that a world beyond capitalism is more possible than ever.

Feargal McGovern

March 12, 2024

Berlinale: Filmmakers Say What the Rest of the World is Saying

At the Berlinale film festival, Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers called for equality and peace. German politicians want to ban such hateful talk.

Nathaniel Flakin

February 28, 2024

“Antideutsche”: The Aberration of Germany’s Pro-Zionist Left

As Germany persists in its unwavering support of Israel and the total denial of its genocide, the German Left is conflicted over the issue. While leftists all over the world are showing solidarity with Palestine, a segment of the German Left is historically pro-Zionist. How did this movement, the so-called Antideutsche (Anti-Germans) come to be?

Seb Zürcher

February 21, 2024

Why German Media are Lying About the Palestine Solidarity Movement at the Free University of Berlin

A rally in front of the Free University of Berlin had as many journalists as demonstrators. This is yet another example of the international campaign to defame all protests against Israel's genocidal military campaign.

Nathaniel Flakin

February 16, 2024

MOST RECENT

Former president Donald Trump standing at a podium in front of American flags.

To Stop Trump, We Need Much More Democracy, Not Less

Democrats have been trying to kick Trump off the ballot as an "insurrectionist." Liberals say we have to restrict democracy in order to save it. As socialists, we think they have it backwards: to beat the Far Right, we need a mass movement fighting for radical democracy.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 18, 2024

Declaration: End Imperialist Intervention in Haiti, Solidarity with the Haitian People

The “Multinational Security Support Mission” announced by the United States marks a new imperialist-colonial intervention in Haiti by the United States, the UN, and their allies.

“Poor Things” Floats Like a Butterfly and Stings Like a Butterfly

Poor Things is a fantastical comedy with beautiful set design and costumes and an Oscar-winning performance from Emma Stone. So why did it leave me feeling so empty? Despite juggling feminist and socialist ideas, the film is ideologically muddled and often self-contradictory.

Basil Rozlaban

March 16, 2024

New Jersey Democrats Attack the Public’s Right to Government Records

The New Jersey state assembly, led by the Democratic Party, just tried to fast-track a bill that would have gutted the Open Public Records Act. This is a reminder that their party is an obstacle, not an ally, in the fight to preserve democracy.

Samuel Karlin

March 15, 2024